URI Europe Assembly “Together Creating Heaven on Earth by Cultivating Peace, Justice, and Healing” was held in Lienz, Eastern Tyrol, Austria, from Thursday, 28. September to Monday, 2. October 2023.
We were overjoyed to finally meet in person again after four long years. The last time the URI Europe community met face-to-face was in Ohrid, North Macedonia, in fall 2019. This year we were blessed to be hosted by Elisabeth Ziegler-Dureger from the URI Lienz CC and the whole community in Lienz.

The aim of this Assembly was for European CC leaders and URI Europe team members to come together, meet, exchange, build and deepen relationships and work on a plan for joint action. Together we wanted to see where each of us stands at this moment in time, what our collective energy is and what each of us can offer for creating positive changes.
Also, we used this time together to identify the most critical issues for peace, justice, and healing on the local, European and global levels and how we can tackle them as a collective in joint wisdom, fortitude, learning and commitment.

58 incredible CC leaders and youth from 17 countries and 16 different spiritual and religious expressions came together in beautiful Lienz in Eastern Tyrol. Besides the URI Europe team and CC members, we hosted URI Global leadership members, URI Multiregion members, and URI Europe partners and guests.

At this critical time in history, we strongly believe in the importance and benefit of meeting together. Therefore, together we wanted to:

• Get informed about everyone’s position, achievements and results;
• Network people, motivate through the exchange of stories, good practices and experiences;
• Share a feeling of belonging and being connected to “URI family”, toward the common goal;
• Transform the purpose of URI into action through gathering,
  
• Help CCs to grow and prosper, thereby to serve a purpose of URI;
• Train participants in growing our Circles, building peace, justice and healing;
• Get informed about and align with URI global vision and strategy;
• Learn about the reality in Lienz and the amazing work done by our CC;
• Support the local community’s work toward peace, justice, and healing;
• Raise the visibility of URI in Austrian civil society;
• Promote the URIE work and our publication “Humans of Europe”;
• Strengthen partnerships with like-minded organizations.

During the Assembly, we had an amazing opportunity to visit the Bell for Peace and Friendship, to enjoy a concert supported by the local community and most importantly, to connect with people in three refugee camps in Syria that are supported by URI Lienz CC.

We contributed to this great project by donating money earmarked for the meals at our meeting. Instead, we enjoyed delicious vegetarian meals similar to those eaten by the refugees in the camps, cooked by local volunteers with ingredients donated by local producers in Lienz.

To learn more about URI Lienz CC please visit https://www.bildung-frieden.net/
To learn about Bell for Peace and Friendship, please visit https://freundschaftsglocke-hochstein.net/a-bell-for-peace-and-friendship/

Here you can find some of the media coverage of the event in the German language (translated versions will be available at our website):
https://www.meinbezirk.at/osttirol/c-gedanken/bildung-bringt-frieden-internationales-treffen-in-lienz_a6321038
https://religion.orf.at/stories/3221489/